letter to the audience

Last night because of a winter storm watch we were forced to cancel our small groups in all of the homes. Instead we shifted gears and set up equipment in my house in order to do a small group Gatheirng online. Myself, my wife, and three other leaders sat in the living room and spoke with our community that we blitzed that day. We let them know that we were going to be there online and that the Gathering would happen via our live streaming site we started four weeks ago for our high school service. 

It was a great night of discussion. Students were bolder with questions and comments because of the pseudo anonymity. It was very interesting as it unfolded. Anyway here is the letter I wrote the next day to our community and if you're interested the post below this one contains the video we blitzed our kids with on Facebook and our student site hours leading up to the event.

In this letter I detail how many people watched and where they came from.

Students & Leaders, Last night was a fun time for me and the leaders who were able to extend our Gathering to you at home during the bad weather. This mornign my wife and I have noted those of you who talked about how much you liked it. You may not know this but for the last four weeks we have been streaming live over the internet our wednesday night services at that same website. The thing I liked about last night and that I have a vision for is happened as a result of Nina. Nina sent a note to all of her friends in Kansas and out of that response Miranda joined our Gathering last night and was able to participate. Later that night I checked our sites statistics and during the viewing time we had one participant from each of the following states; Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, South Carolina, & Florida. We had 36 unique visitors form Texas. There were hits from San Antonio, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Austin, Houston, Georgetown, & Liberty Hill. They came to our page from Facebook, my blog, Gateway Church, our student site as well but what I want is to see them come to our services because of you. Maybe they are having a hard time coming to a physical church. The live service is a great way to break the ice and let them see what you see every week. In the future we have had discussions about offering vodcasts for things you want to talk about that we would host late at night for 30 minutes, or to do re-broadcasts of our best services that you could watch online with your friends. I know this sounds weird but it is simply a tool. It is not the only way to introduce your friends to this community but it is a way that, picture this, knows no boundaries or limits. They can come from all over here in the states, the world, and who knows what will happen after that. Last week eight people watched our talk about pain and addiction and we haven't even begun to really promote the online service. I wanted to share with you what I am thinking and what I see as an opportunity. Thanks for taking a risk with me last night and trying this out. When we do this in the future I see it getting only better. I also see we need some chat room rules to just keep us focused but we will figure it out as we go. If youhave any thoughts or ideas let me know what is on your mind in respect to this topic. Have a great day... Chad